


Breaking Little Pieces of My Heart

by justscribbling



Series: Little Pieces of My Heart [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Romance, Season Three AU, Season Two Compliant, Series of Vignettes, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-05 17:50:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1826932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justscribbling/pseuds/justscribbling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Act II of the romantic plot line for Arrow Season Three AU. Focusing Felicity, Oliver, and the mysterious Daniel. A series of scene vignettes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [forever-erica's answer](http://forever-erica.tumblr.com/post/89218844494) to an anon's question of "How do you THINK the [Daniel] x [Felicity] relationship will end?"

He knew the moment he looked up and saw her standing awkwardly at the door. Tension pulled her eyebrows and her lips were a breath’s width parted. Beautiful, brilliant Felicity whose every gesture and expression conveyed so much more than the words she actually spoke. He loved that about her, even as the truth of what she was about to tell him blazed so brightly it hurt that he eventually had to avert his gaze, and he took that opportunity to stand and move around his desk.

"Daniel—"

He smiled at her. No matter what happens, he would never get tired of the way she spoke his name.

He knew the moment she knew that he understood. Her lips closed against the words she’d been about the say, her head tilted with a sigh, and her eyes closed briefly as she went to him and accepted the implicit offer of his hug with his barely outstretched arms.

No other woman had ever read him that well before. And his eyes drifted closed as he revelled in the warmth of a woman he’d fallen in love with, so deeply and completely, that that itself was a gift he’d always cherish.

"It’s not…" Felicity shifted in his embrace to look up at him. "It’s not you, and it’s not about Oliver, you know." She squinted with a wince. "I mean, yes, it’s kind of about Oliver, and obviously it involves you, but it’s really about me—" The squinted wince became a squinted grimace. "Oh,  God, I swear I had a proper speech which didn’t sound half as bad."

Daniel chuckled. “I’m sure.”

She leaned back and studied him, her gaze softening. “You deserve better, and I deserve that, too.”

"I agree," Daniel said. And he did. He wholeheartedly wanted the best for Felicity, and he knew she felt the same for him. That knowledge took the sting out of the break up. Just a little.

"Do you want me to go knock some sense into him?" He tilted his head calmly, as if he was actually considering the merit of his offer.

Her mouth twisted. “What?! God, no.” She punched him in the arm when she realized he was joking. Maybe. But her lips finally lifted into a smile, and he couldn’t be more pleased that he could still do that, at least. “You’re an idiot.”

"But he’s the bigger idiot," Daniel said, grinning.

She gave him an adorable eye roll. “Yeah, well.” It amused him she didn’t argue the point. Stepping away from him, she turned around in front of his desk to half-sit and half-lean against the edge. Felicity eyed him and said, “It’s really not about him. You get that, right?”

He nodded. He took the spot next to her, bumping his shoulder with hers. “The reason you're breaking up with me isn't because you’re waiting for him. You’re breaking up with me because a part of you has already fallen in love with him, and that’s not fair for either you or me.”

The surprise on her face was swift and over before Felicity sighed, pulling one of her adorable squints at him. “Damn it. Why couldn’t I have met you first?”

"I’ll have my science department work on that time machine immediately," he said. Her grin was fleeting, but genuine. It hurt him to see her so torn, though. Felicity was light and happiness, and the sadness that clung to her felt wrong. "You should talk to him."

She lifted an eyebrow. “Why… It’s… I…” She took a breath, shaking her head and staring at the carpet, and tried one more time. “He doesn’t love me like that—”

His own eyebrows flew up. She wasn’t looking at him, but her hand waved in the air anyway as if sensing his reaction.

"And even if—even if he might or could, he isn’t willing to— He isn’t ready to—" Her shoulders scrunched up. "I don’t know, but," she said, and she looked back up at him. "Like you said, I’m not waiting."

For a brief moment, Daniel pitied Oliver. Although, if the man couldn’t get his head out of his ass…

"You deserve better. And more, Felicity. Always."

 


	2. Chapter 2

"Felicity, did Daniel get back to you on the nanotechnology blueprints?"

On the other side of the lair, the blonde sat in her usual chair in front of her widescreens and blinking lights. One slender arm hugged her waist. The crook of her knuckles of her other hand rested against her lips. There was no indication she had even heard him.

"Felicity?" Oliver tried again, tossing the hand towel over his shoulder and stepping off the exercise mat. When she still didn't turn, he noticed she seemed to staring off at her keyboard instead of studying her screens. It was unlike Felicity to be so lost in her thoughts; she worked through her thoughts through action. Typing. Talking. Moving.

It wasn't until he was almost beside her that he realized he'd seen that look on her face before. His hand was already reaching out to touch her shoulder before he spoke. "Felicity--"

She jerked upright. Her ponytail whipped around her face and she lifted her chin up to him. _"Don't do that."_

"I'm sorry. I called your name twice, you didn't hear." She blinked at him, not quite comprehending, and his concern about whatever was troubling her outweighed the guilt over startling her. "Felicity, what's wrong?"

His question seemed to provide the jumpstart she needed.

"Sorry, it's nothing." Felicity straightened and shook her head. She unwrapped the arm around her mid-drift, positioning it against the arm rest, and leaned forward to her screens. "Did you want to ask me something about the case? The trace on those blueprints is still--"

"What I want to ask about right now is _you_." His hand hovered over her shoulder and at the very last minute, he shifted it to nudge the back of her chair toward him. He felt his brow lower as she turned to him, almost reluctantly. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

She studied him from behind the glasses. The fingers of his bow hand twitched at his side. For a moment, it felt like _she_ was the one seeking the answers in him instead of the other way around. And then Felicity's lips lifted in a small, resigned smile. "Daniel and I broke up."

His breath caught. That was _not_ what he'd been expecting and the words were out before he could think better of it. "What happened?"

"It just didn't work out." She half shrugged.

Oliver searched her face, even as he ignored the tightness that had built up in his chest. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah."

 _Was she?_ Damn it, she deserved better than this. He felt the anger spark and dissipate as quickly as it had come, and try as he might, he couldn't hang on to it. Instead, all he was left with was sadness. He'd wanted better for her. He _needed_ something better for her. Felicity deserved so much more than this.

"Hey." He discovered he was already touching her shoulder. "Do you want me to go beat him up?"

Oliver wasn't sure if he was trying to say it in jest. The concern and need for her happiness and abject disappointment that she wasn't getting it was all mingled up and he wasn't sure how it translated to her ears. He'd kept his tone light at least, which was a good thing, because she tilted her head at him with a bit of surprise and then amusement.

And then under her breath, he heard her murmur, "He was right. You're both idiots."

"What?"

She smiled at him. "I'm fine, Oliver. I love Daniel, but I didn't _love_ him," she said. Her lips tilted with a wry smile. "He understood and he was a perfect gentleman. We're still friends." Her hand covered his. A reassuring squeeze.

"I'm sorry it didn't work out."

"Thank you." Felicity nodded.

It seemed like a good place to move on from the topic. She had already begun to turn her chair back and the movement drew her shoulder away from his touch. So when he spoke, Oliver was almost as surprised as she was.

"You deserve someone who loves you wholeheartedly, who you can love just as much."

Her expression went blank. She blinked. "Thank you." Her voice was soft.

Now, Oliver. Now was that good place to let this go and step away. His feet wouldn't move. _Move._

"Can I ask…" He broke off, snapping his eyes shut. What the hell? That was _stupid_. Not to mention _inappropriate._

"Why I couldn't love him?"

Her guess prompted him to open his eyes again. "I'm sorry, you don't--"

"I don't know, Oliver," she spoke over him. One of her shoulders jerked up and a pent up breath rushed past her lips. Her head slanted at him, and she readjusted her knees and bent her arms, and Oliver was struck by all the raw angles of her body language, as if exposed and sharpened by the honesty and truth he could always see in her.

"We don't get to choose who we might fall in love with. It's only with those who we might love that way-- that's when we're given the choice."

His chest was tight before. Now that tightness _twisted_ , but he couldn't not ask. "...A choice to do what?"

She was still looking at him. He felt Felicity weighed him with that single look.

"To love," she said simply. "Falling in love is the easy part, that part just happens or it doesn't. The hard part comes after. To love, when things get hard, on the days you're not sure you even like the other person, or when you're so afraid to risk your heart because it's been broken, or when you're just so mad or uncertain, or-- in the face of a million other things, that's just life." She didn't stop, even as she made a half-hearted hand-sweep in the air.

"It's a choice you make." Her gaze bore into him. "You know, because it's not some feeling that makes you swoon or sweeps you off your feet or some Hollywood picture perfect feel. Love is work. Love is commitment. Love is a choice that you act on, because you choose to do so with every fiber of your being. Or... you don't."

She barely paused for breath, but this was different from all the other times Felicity babbled. This was different because with every word she spoke, every sigh she made, his breath caught and he felt every part of him was being _pulled_ by the strength of her voice, and she was unrelenting. Every word was painful and beautiful, and he wasn't sure how he was still standing. Or breathing.

He didn't know how long they stayed there, looking at each other, both of them suspended and caught in that moment, but it was finally a breath that forced its way out of his lungs -- and on it, her name -- that changed things.

"Felicity…"

The moment snapped and time moved again. Felicity blinked. She reached up and adjusted her glasses. Her body leaned back and slid against the chair. "Um. Yeah. That was… huh. I didn't see that coming." Looking mildly embarrassed, she offered him a smile. An invitation to smile back at her. To continue on as they were.

The pain in his right hand finally registered and it was because he was clenching it. He let go of his fist abruptly and moved toward her. Felicity's smile began to fade and her lips parted, uncertain.

The sounds of the door to the lair opening filtered down followed by the sounds of footsteps on the stairs.

"I know what I said, but you gotta admit it--" Roy's voice could be heard before both he and Diggle came into view. The two men were in mid-conversation when they slowed two steps from the floor and noticed them. Everything fell silent as both pairs stared at the other.

Roy lifted his eyebrows. "Uh, are we interrupting something?"

"Is everything okay?" Diggle frowned, taking the last two steps. Roy followed a beat later.

Oliver glanced down at Felicity who was staring at them.

Appearing caught between expressions, she blinked before looking up Oliver, then back at Diggle and Roy, and back to Oliver again before shaking her head.

"No-- Yes." She gave Oliver a sidelong look, her brow furrowing at his expression -- what did she see, he wondered -- and she huffed.

"Oh, fine," she said, addressing Roy and Diggle. "Daniel and I broke up." She got up -- in the direction away from him, Oliver noticed-- and walked toward the space between the three men. "We're good, it was amicable, and I still consider him to be important to me. And before anyone tries to offer, no, I do not need you to beat him up for me."

"Well, duh. Why would we want to beat up Daniel?" To Roy's credit, the concerned frown was almost barely noticeable before he shrugged.

"Right," Felicity said. She smiled. "Because there's no reason to."

"And because if there was, the man's company would probably be bankrupt and his credit rating destroyed by now, among other things," Diggle put in, approaching her with a closed mouth smile. He paused and looked down at her with a near grin, "You ever decide to go a different route and say the word, though..."

Felicity looked up at him and laughed. She put a hand on Diggle's arm. "You're my guy."

"Mhm," he said, nodding and headed toward the other side of the lair. As he passed Oliver though, the taller man gave him an assessing look. It was deeply uncomfortable but it was what Oliver needed to stop standing there like a statue. He turned around, only half listening to Roy and Felicity talk about Daniel and their current case. He walked over to the exercise area and hung up the towel off his shoulder.

"You okay?" Diggle asked, coming beside him.

Oliver lifted his eyebrows. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Again, the man and that look. When Diggle slid his gaze over to Felicity, Oliver couldn't help but follow. The blonde was already sitting back at her workstation, although she was talking to Roy who stood behind the screens. She said something that made Roy grimace and she laughed.

"She's okay," Oliver said after a moment. "She'll be okay."

Diggle let out a quiet snort. "Yeah. But will you?"

Before he could answer, Diggle had already rejoined the group. Oliver stared after them. It took him another moment to realize he was running his left thumb across his right palm, partially kneading the tension away and partially tracing the tiny crescent marks where his fingernails had dug in.

_It's a choice you make… Or you don't._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was prompted in part by [ihatepeas'](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ihatepeas/pseuds/ihatepeas) reaction to the first chapter when I posted it on Tumblr.


	3. Chapter 3

It started slowly.

He snapped at her one evening, eliciting a swift look of surprise and disbelief on Felicity's face, because his shortness with her appeared to come out of nowhere. He owned up to his behavior almost immediately and explained it away as frustration over Amanda Waller's manipulations of him. She forgave him.

But it happened again.

And again.

Sometimes he was curt. Other times he was overbearing. Mostly he felt himself growing closed off. He hated it. He hated there was an unusual wariness and uncertainty now in her eyes; he hated that he was responsible for the change; he hated that every time he tried to make things right, he screwed it up even worse.

Felicity was no push-over. She called him out whenever he was acting like a jerk, but she also gave him a great deal of leeway, assuming that it was the growing strain of Thea, Malcolm, Waller, Queen Consolidated, the nanotech, the new Count, and a dozen other things that was weighing on his shoulders. All of their shoulders.

But with the way he was acting, he knew it was only a matter of time she would have had enough.

It took a long two weeks.

So when she ripped into him, he let her. He took all her justified berating and verbal lashing, but he couldn't answer her when she finally demanded, "So why don't you just _tell_ me what the hell exactly is your problem, Oliver?"

He didn't stop her when she shook her head, eventually dismissing him with frustration -- and hurt and disappointment, he wasn't blind -- and she told him he either needed to figure it out or tell her, but either way, _she_ needed to get out of the lair because she was _thisclose_ to taking a pointy arrow and using it... _violently_.

After she left, Oliver glanced over at Diggle who had watched the entire encounter. He threw the man a look that said he wasn't going to talk about it, but of course, the man ignored it.

With an elbow on his knee, John Diggle glared at him. He pushed off the table he was leaning against and walked over.

"Digg…" Oliver warned, holding up a hand.

"You're in love with her, Oliver." Diggle wasted no words. "You know it, I know it. You let her go once, Oliver. Are you seriously going to let her go a second time?"

After taking Felicity's reproach just minutes before, Oliver had no more reserves with which to just keep quiet. His hands curled at his sides, feeling anger rise inside him. Anger was preferable to the self-hate.

"It's not that simple."

"Really." Diggle narrowed his eyes. "Are you _really_ going that route?" The man crossed his arms. "Fine, what's complicated about it? Because you're afraid she'll get hurt? That it will put her in harm's way? That it's too dangerous?"

Diggle unfolded his arms, more pissed than Oliver had ever seen him. "Because if that's your fear, where the hell have you been these past two years? And how arrogant can you get? She's been part of this team as equally as you have, and this was _her_ choice--"

"I _know_ that, Diggle! I _know_!" Oliver all but shouted. His body was tensed and he half-turned away only to turn back, restless and agitated. "I _know_ the life we've chosen, Digg. So, _yes_ , I'm fully aware of the risks we take, and _yes_ , it scares the shit out of me that Felicity takes those risks right with us -- and it always will regardless -- but I couldn't be more proud of her for making that choice."

"Then what is it?"

All of the anger Oliver had been so desperately trying to hang on to dissipated. He looked at Diggle and all he could do was to say it simply. "She deserves better."

Silence.

Finally, Diggle's mouth thinned and he gave a small shake of his head. "She probably does," he said. "But that's not a choice _you_ get to make. Just like she chose this life, she gets to be the one to make the choice about you. Not you."

Oliver looked away. "Then maybe it's me. I'm the one who doesn't deserve her."

"If you really believe that, then maybe you don't," Diggle said. Oliver heard the man draw closer. "But let me say this. You're hurting her, man. She can stand toe-to-toe against you, Oliver, but you're hurting her-- and if you keep this shit up, you're going to realize you're not just hurting her, you're hurting yourself. Figure this out, for both of your sakes. Make a decision and move forward."

A firm hand gripped Oliver's shoulder and let go. Diggle waited and when Oliver looked at him, he added, "Make the right decision."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I wrote Daniel/Felicity's breakup, it was intended to be a oneshot. Then Oliver happened and it obviously wasn't resolved... and suddenly I was scribbling dialogue for the rest of the romantic plot line of season three (au). 
> 
> It occurred to me that I had started and published the middle of the story, which posed a problem because I didn't want the chapters to appear out of chronological order. And then I finally realized that Daniel/Felicity's break up would have taken place sometime in Act II of the romantic plot line... and so, I did a little re-structuring. This scene concludes (for now?) Act II. But it's not the end! I've Act III all written and will be publishing them in part three very quickly, so I hope you'll stay and read them. (And hopefully enjoy them.)
> 
> EDIT: Part three is up!
> 
> **TL;DR: This scene is not the end! Part three and the conclusion of the series ~~will be coming _very soon._~~ _up_!**


End file.
